Door-operating mechanism



Jan. 13, 1931. F. L. MORSE DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM Filed Aug. 26, 19262 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEYS EEELE LL.. L: .=CEEEEEEWEE Jan. 13, 1931.

F. L. MORSE DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM Filed 26, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 M[777% Mam Zia I ATI ORNEYS Patented Jan. 13,1931

IRANKiItMEDBS-E, or unease. Year nooneornmrme MECHANISM:

Application, fiIed AugustQG, 19.25.. Serial 110,131, 65.

This invention, relates to door operating mechanisms; and 1:9,, in part,a continuation, and, inpart, a dlVISlOIILOf' my application,

Serial No. 64,590, filed, October 24, 1925', on power actuated doors,certain features of its subject matter being; disclosed especially in Fiures 1 to 4 of that'application.

ne-of the p-rimaryobjects of my inven tion isthe provision of animproved'meehanism for opening and closing doorsbypower, whichi-s-simple, rugged, and compact convenient and reliable in use andoperation; and relatively. inexpensive to manufacture;

Another object oftheinventi'on is; the provision of an improvedmechanism for operating large double doors employinga singlepowerd'eveloping means.

, Still another object ofthe invention is the provision', in anactuating mechanism, for

double doors, of meansfor causing one door to be closed in advance-ofthe other:

The above, as well; as such other objects as may hereinafter appear, Iobtain -by-ineans 'ota construction whichI have-illustrated in preferredform inthe accompanying drawings, wherein- Fig. I- is a fragmentary plansection through theupper door frame with my in proved operatingmechanism appearing in plan view, the complete operating partsfo-r theright hand door'only being' shown and the open position of this doorbeingindicate'd in dotted lines; a

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional-[view taken on ,,the; line-2'2 01?Fig; 1; f

Fig. 3 is "anenlarged detailed section taken on the line 33. of Fig. 1;:i

Fig. 4 isan enlarged detailed section, through a swivel nut and pivotedarm which I employ, taken on the line 44- of Fig; I;

Fig; 5 1s aoplan section similar to 1,

but showing my invention applied to a pair of single. leaf outwardlyopening swinging doors, the figure also embodying a modification;

Fig. dis a viewsiinilarto Fig 5, but: showing one of the doors closedand the oth'e'r slightly open-;..and- 7 Fig. 7' is an enlarged detailedsection-taken on the line 77'of Fig. 5.

."Referringto'; Figs. 1 to 4', inclusive, it will be seen thati-I haveshown'my vinvention applied to a pair Oftwotlfif doors A and. B,thecomplete comiections to the door A, however, only being shown tosimplify thedrawings, it being understoodthat the connectionstotliedoorB are the sameas for the door A. The firstpleaf'of the doorgAris idesignatedby thenumeralj'? and 'the second leat by the numeral 8;which leaves-are hinged together so astotold on themselves when the dooris-o pened as in'dicatedin. dotted lines in 1. vo-nn-ect'edf to eachdooris an arm 9 which is pivoted. at 10 on. thebracket 11,, saidbrackiet-being securecl to the-building. structure 12 at a pointadjacent to -the door hingelB; The free endiof the arm Q'iseonnecteditOthe second leafB, of the-door. by me'ans of the link 14. By virtue ofthis arrangement it will be seenthat the doors can be operated with Y aminimum amountofjpower, and that; the hinges are relievedofjoperatingthrusts, the iajme being transmitted mainly to thepivot arm-9 is -provided. with. a, yoked portioI.1..1l5 for receiving-the swi.velnut16,into which nut] is. threade d. the operating, r0 d.v 17, the.actuationof which; will he hereinafter described; Itis tote noted. thatthe radii H 1 extends from. One pivoted. arm 9 to the other. and that.said. rod, atone end is threaded into. the. swivel. nut. of: one arnnand, at the other end, intofthe swivel nut of the, other arm, thethreads of the rodand nut being m opposite. it-opposite ends,.that is tosay, one

end-is provided with lett hand threads and the other. end with righthand threads.- As wi ll'hbe seen. in. Figs. 1 and 2, I have mounted. amotor. deviceC on the upper door sill-[18 centralf of the door, opening,which motor device comprisesv an electricimotorlt) mountedonthe baseplate 2O,.and.worn gearing 21.,,thev worm-of which is secured. tothemotor shaft, andtlie worm wheel 22 of which is mounted the bearings 2323 formed, in this instance, as. part of the base plate 20; I

Iii this connection, it is pointed out that by virtue of the wormgdrivejust'described, the doors Willhe' looked upon cutting oft the source ofpower. This not only acts as a safeguard against unauthorized opening ofthe doors, but also serves to hold the doors rigidly in their openposition. a

y The worm wheel 22 is provided with a square hole 24 whereby it isadapted to fit the squared portion 24a of the operating rod 17, whichportion 24a is somewhat longer than the worm wheel 22 is wide, thusmaking it possible for the rod 17 to move longitudinally within thelimits of the stop nuts 25, 25, provided on the rod, and this for apurpose to appear hereinafter.

Assuming, now, that the doors are closed,

and it is desired to open them, the motor is started, by means ofasuitable switch, which actuates the operating rodf17, rotating it, andcausing the swivel nuts 16 to moveoutwardly by virtue of the right andleft hand threads previously described, which, in turn, causes the arms9 to swing on their pivots, thus opening the door. Owing tothe arc u-,ate movement of the yoke 15, to which the nut 16 is swiveled, it isobvious thatsome sort of compensating connection must be providedbetween the. nut and the motor device to take care of this arcuatemovement, and, as a simple and efiective compensating means, I haveprovided the rod 17 with fie):- ible portions 26, 26 at either side ofthe squared portion 24. In this instance the flexible portions 26, 26are formed by flattening the rod into ribbon formatthis point and thenby givingthe ribbonedportion a 90 twist. Thus, it willfbe seen that therod may be rotated by themotordeviceandalso moved about the fiexibleportion as a pivot to compensate for the arcuate v movement abovedescribed. I

It is pointed out that if one. door closes in advance of the other, theswivel nutjm the arm of the closed door will then remain stationary, andthe rod-1T willbe moved longitudinally because it will then screw intothe nut, thereby continuing the movement of the other door until itreaches itsclosed position). The arrangement of worm wheel 22, rod 17and stop nuts25 permitsof' the above action. q I

In order to prevent jamming of the door,

guide rails 27 are provided for the'rollcrs 28 on the doors, whichrailsare curved in.- wardly at their endstoward the door hinges for thepurpose of separating the leaves of the door when the door is moved fromopen to closed position, thus preventing jamming.

Referring now to Figs. 5, 6 and 7 it'will be seen that I have shown myinvention up; pDIied to a pair of outwardly opening doors and E in whichthe long lever arms 9 are replaced by much shorter arms 9a, 9a, whicharms are connected to the doors through the medium of the links 9?), 96.It is obvious that here the nuts 16', 16 move toward the motor devicefor opening the door and away from as shown in Figs. 1 to 4, maybeemployed, if

desired. 7 V p When employing doors of the type shown in Fig. 5, it iscustomary to-provide one of the doors with an astragal which, in thisinstance, is shownon the right hand door D, as viewed-in Fig. 5, anddesignated by the reference numeral 29. In doors of this construction,it is, therefore, important that the door not carrying the 'astragal, inthis case, door E, closes first, and that the door D, carrying theastragal, closes second, sov as-to prevent interference between theastragal and the faceofthe door E; To insure such closing of the doorsat all times, I have provided a,

spring 30 acts against the'left hand stop nut 25 to-move theoperating-rod to the left, the operation being as follows: Assuming, now

.ihat both doors are closed, and the operating,

rod 17in the position shown in Fig. 5, and that the motor is run in adirection to open the doors, then the first action is'to rotate the rodwhich immediately begins to shift to the left, due to the springtension, and continues 1 to so shift until the right handnut 25 comes upagainst the. adjacent hub of the worm wheel. In sodoing the rod screwsinto the lefthand nut, and the door E is-held closed.

At. the same time, due to this movement of;

the rod and the inward creeping of the right hand nut 16, the door Dopens. From this point on; the'two doors open together, the door D,however,'maintaining its lead on the door E. The amount of lead one doorhas overthe' other is determined bythe amount of lost motion provided at25a. In Fig. 6 this load has been exaggerated, but it is tobe'understood that the amount thereof may be altered tosuit anyparticular case. If desired, thenuts 25 may be made adjustable to adjustthe amount of lead. Stops may be provided to limit theopening movementof the doors, which may be arranged so that the door D strikes itsstopfirst totake up the 1 leadgabove,mentioned. When the doors as sume theirfull open posit on, the motor may be "automatically orotherwise stopped.

To close the doors', the motor 1s rotated in the opposite direction,which again causes V full closed position (see Fig. As the mo- .90Tn-the particular embodiment shown, the

tor device continues to rotate, the rod 17 screws'out of the lefthand'nut 16, thus shifting the rod to the right against the tension ofthe spring, which action, together with the right hand nut creepingoutwardlyon the rod, closes the second door, and the rod 17' againassumes the position shown'in Fig. 5.

From the above, it will be seen that I haveprovided a means ior insuringthe closing of one door in advance of the other, thus avoiding anydanger of interference between the astragal and the face of the matingdoor. Binding or interference is also avoided when opening the doors.

I claim g 1. A door operating mechanism comprising, in combination, amotor, a pivoted arm, the free end of which is connected to the door, aswivel nut carried by said arm, and

a driving rod between said motor and said connection and for the closingof onedoor in advance of the other, together with means associated withsaid compensating driving connection for insuring the closing of onedoor in advance of the other.

3. A door operating mechanism for a pair of doors comprising, incombination, lever means associated with each door for opening andclosing the doors, and means for operating said lever means, including amotor, an operating rod rotatable by said motor, means operativelyconnecting said rod with the aforesaid lever means,- and spring meansoperating on the rotatable rod to cause one door to be closed in advanceof the other.

4. An operating mechanism for double doors comprising, in combination, amotor, an operating lever arm for each door, an operating rod connectingsaid lever arms, op-

positely threaded connections between said arms and'said rod, theconnection between said motor and said rod having capacity for lostmotion in order to compensate for one door closing in advance of theother.

5. An operating mechanism for double doors comprising, in combination,an operating lever arm for each door, an operating rod connecting saidlever arms, oppositely threaded connections between said arms and saidrod, and a motor device for rotating said rod, the connection betweensaid motor device and said rod having capacity for lost motion, togetherwith spring-means operating to take up said lost motion to insure the 1closing of one door in advance of the other- 6. An operating mechanismfor double doors comprising, incombination, an operating lever arm foreach door, an operating rod connecting said lever arms, threadedconnections between said arms andsaid rod, a motor device for rotatingsaid rod, a connection between said motor device and said rod wherebythe rod may move longitudinal- 7 1y while being rotated by the motordevice,

means for causing the rod to be so moved, and stop means limlting theamount of such movement.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name.

FRANK L. MORSE.

